Theodoor de Booy

Who was Theodoor de Booy?

Theodoor Hendrik Nikolaas de Booy was a Dutch-born American archaeologist.

De Booy was born as son of a Vice Admiral in Hellevoetsluis, Netherlands. At the age of 23, he migrated to the United States where he married Elizabeth Hamilton Smith in 1909. In 1916 he became an American citizen. In 1911 he went to the Bahamas with his wife. During their archaeological fieldwork in the caves and middens they made remarkable discoveries from the Pre-Columbian culture of the Lucayan. In the following years he worked for the Heye Museum in New York City. His fieldwork in the Caribbean and in Venezuela made him a prolific expert for the history of the Pre-Columbian Arawak culture.

In 1919 he died from influenza in his home in Yonkers, New York.

Alexander Wetmore named the extinct Antillean Cave Rail after de Booy.